Personal Project

Christoph Buhne

Land Mine Awareness

WHAT ACTION CAN I TAKE?

There are several sites where you can find out what action you can take: Mineaction.org- The website of the United Nations Mine Action Service. Contains information on what action is being taken and case studies of Countries Landmines.org- The website of Adopt a Minefield. Information, as well as a service to adopt a minefield, where you donate to the group and they use those fund to de-mine an area. ICBL.org- The website of the Internation Campain to Ban Landmines, where you can learn more about what treaties are in place to ban and restrict the use of Lanmines.

"When a war is over I think it's a cowardly thing to leave the war behind you in minefields that hit women and children and the most vulnerable. Imagine the war is finished and you go to work and there are snipers shooting at you. Imagine taking your kids to the beach and you find that the beach is blowing up beneath you. Like there's nowhere

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Christoph Buhne

How do Landmines Affect Life in a County? On the coast of the Aegean Sea, and extending into the Balkans lies nation of Croatia. It is a county of rolling hills, verdant forest, and Medieval Castles. However, if you have heard of Croatia, there was probably no mention of the picturesque countryside, and mention that Croatia has the largest concentration of landmines in the world. Remnants from a war of independence, it is now estimated that nearly 2 million anti-personnel mines were laid, leaving more than 4 500 square kilometers impassable. The presence of so many landmines causes several problems for the local residents. Because the front lines of the war of Independence stretched across field, forests, and villages, landmines riddle fields, forests, and roads, nearly invisible without metal detectors. This made, and still does, make it nearly impossible to farmers and locals to resume work, as the risk of stepping on a landmine was too high. This left many without a job, forcing them to live off of international aid, or to move to safer regions of the country, as well as making it dangerous to travel through and into the region, harming tourism years after the conflict ended and most of the damage repaired. Although it is possible for these mines to be removed, it is a long and slow process. Because there is no record of where the landmines were deployed, team of de miners needed to first search the combat zones and locate landmines with metal detectors, dogs, and other means. After this, the mines needed be diffused. Because it is a risky and time consuming process, requiring significant training, there a few de-miners available and they are expensive to hire. Even though

What are Anti-Personnel Landmines? Why Do People Use them? An anti-personnel mine is defined as an explosive device hidden on or in the ground, with the aim to be used against humans. It functions like this: When a trigger is set off ( a pressure plate or a trip wire), an explosive is set off in the mine, which send fragments of the landmine outwards, hitting whatever triggered the mine. They are different from anti-tank (mine that are used to destroy or disable tanks) mines because the trigger is sensitive enough to be set off by a persons body weight.
Landmines are among the most barbaric weapons of war, because they continue to kill and maim innocent people long after the war itself has ended. Also, fear of them keeps people off the land, and thus prevents them from growing food.

-KOFI ANNAN

Groups use anti-personnel mines for one main purpose: to kill or maim troops or civilians belonging to an opposing faction. The reasoning behind this is simple: It costs around $3 to manufacture a land mine, but if a person is maimed or killed, it will cost the opposing faction many times this number in economic losses, as the victim will need medical treatment and will not be able to work properly for the rest of their life, due to losing a limb or a similarly crippling injury. They also can be used to deny access to an area, because of their hidden but deadly nature.